Hi David,
<snip>
> Currently available internet connectivity options make regular
> usage impossible. Checking your mail on holidays is about it. If
> you're pay as you go you don't even get gprs net connectivity, you
> get a wap gateway. Unmetered gprs acces would solve this.
I have a separate email account which only four people on earth know about! I use it for my XDA2 so if there is an emergency and i am on the road i will receive the detailed email (or the first 1k and download the rest later) I never receive spam into it. GPRS is always on and checks it every 10 minutes. I also have MSN Messenger on it so that i can live chat on the road but that's just a "cool feature" it would be easier to make a phone call, however i deal with NOCs in Dublin, London, Costa Rica, Vancouver etc so it's cheaper to use MSN :-). For other things (such as temperature alerts or outage alerts) i get them SMSed to me and a graph is sent to my normal email address. All on one machine.
I also have Terminal services (God forbid i ever have a windows server directly connected to the net) and pocketputty which means i can do any admin tasks on the road through my mobile.
>> A full keyboard is a good thing, you quickly begin to expect it.
>
You can have handwriting recognition... however for those of us who type faster (and neater) than they write; a keyboard is better... i agree, there is one also built into the xda2 :-)
> Availability of software sucks, why do i have to buy an application
> that turns the phone on after reset, that should be in rc. I'm just
> not used to not being able to write a script for a quick fix. I
> assume this is true for all closed phone platforms.
What kind of apps would you really need for a PDA? everything you really "need" and others are already on it, such as spreadsheets, wordprocessor and powerpoint, other things like pocketputty are free. If you want to do anything else you should really get a laptop in my opinion. You can use a wifi / bluetooth connection from your lappy to your phone to get some connectivity... Although XDA is an O2 phone i have an unblocked one which works on the vodafone network and they provide 28kbps connectivity i believe. Pretty cool for a mobile... pretty crap for anything else though.
>> Using a cable to sync is not cool, i use a cable to charge that's
> awkward enough.
That's the cool thing about the XDA2, it has integrated bluetooth, IRDA, CSD, USB and optional Wifi, you don't really need to connect it with USB but i prefer it because it's less likely someone is going to be monitoring your USB connections than your airwaves (let alone bluetooth)
>> 2 Devices just dont fit in my pocket, i don't carry a handbag.
A case comes with it with a beltclip and it fits in well with standard toolbelts
>> The sharp zaraus has the software, the treo has the keyboard, most
> pda's have the wireless sync, america has unmetered wireless net
> access. I dont expect to see a convergence device that will fill
> the above criteria any time soon.
>> David Cathcart
><snip>
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